Through Gates of Splendor
- Linda Pue
- Jun 24, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 28, 2024
In 1956, the world learned of the horrifying murders of Jim Elliot and his four fellow missionaries as they attempted to
evanglelize the isolated, warrior
Huaorani people of Ecuador. These young men left behind young wives and families. However, some of the women, including Elizabeth Elliott,
returned to live with this tribe. Over time, three hundred came to know the Savior.
The blood of these martyrs provided the seed that yielded the Waodoani church. As Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”[1]
Afterward, Elizabeth Elliot, Jim’s widow, recounted their experience in the book, Through Gates of Splendor. The title derived from "We Rest on Thee," a hymn the missionaries sang before entering Waodaoni territory in 1955:[2]
We rest on Thee, our Shield, and our Defender.
Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise;
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.
A Spirit of Servanthood
We, like those missionaries, do not know when we will see those heavenly gates of splendor. However, the challenge is to make the most of the time God does give us. We can follow Jesus’ example, for He came not to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28). In similar ways, we can die to self and live an ordinary life joyfully, by serving others. This is not easy, for we all, sadly, can be consumed with our own needs, desires, criticisms, and human frailties. Unconfessed sin, especially in our attitudes, damages relationships. Further, nursing wounds from unresolved, unforgiven conflicts breaks human bonds. Serving those individuals whom we resent then becomes an impossibility. In her book, God’s Transmitters, Hannah Hurnard observed, “If there is one sin in the thought life more common than another, it is this brooding … on the shortcomings, blemishes, failures and mistakes of others, until they … crush the thoughts of love in a truly awful way.”[3]
The Psalmist prays, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23–24). When we submit to biblical truth rather than to our feelings, our knowledge of and submission to God grows. Instead of yielding to our emotions and harboring resentment, we must speak the truth of God’s Word to ourselves.
We can be proactive rather than reactive and train ourselves with both spiritual guidance and mental determination to solve conflicts in an intentional way. During days of calm, we need to prepare our hearts and minds for difficulties or disaster by saturating ourselves in the Word of God, for His word is a lamp to our feet and
a light to our paths (Psalm 119:105). The Holy Spirit will guide us with His truth stored in our hearts and minds. Scripture assures us that God will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Our mighty God stands beside us in the fight. We can take comfort in that truth.
An Inspiring Example
In an exemplary way, those missionary wives saturated themselves in these truths, and they survived sudden loss and grief as young widows left to raise fatherless children. Yet, amazingly, God led some of them to serve the very people who killed their loved ones. These women patiently demonstrated the love of Christ in a primitive culture far from their homes and modern comforts.
As I ponder their love and service and sacrifice, my heart is convicted. Have I ever been called to serve the Lord in such a self-giving, self-denying way? Have I laid down my life for others with little concern for the inconvenience or danger or loss it might cause me? Has the lack of gratitude for my service caused me to cease from serving?
In periods of self-reflection, it is important to ask ourselves such questions. As Steve Saint, son of martyred missionary, Nate Saint, said, “If we let God write the story, He doesn’t always promise that the chapters will all be easy, but He does promise that in the last chapter He will make sense of all the other things that have happened in our life, even though some of them are terribly painful. … Hurt people hurt people but it’s also true that forgiven people can learn to forgive people.”[4]
May we be those whose servant hearts bring the love of Christ to our needy world even to those who have power to hurt us.
[1]Elliot, Jim. Quotation. “Brainy Quote" https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/jim_elliot_189244
[2] Through Gates of Splendor. Wikipedia.
[3] Hurnard, Hannah. God’s Transmitters (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1975), 65.
[4] Saint, Steve. “Operation Auca: Martyrs in Ecuador.”
(This 15-minute film tells this amazing story).
